


And I'm running out of time (flesh and bones)

by little_fella (na_shao)



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Blood and Torture, Emotional Manipulation, Gen, M/M, This is violent I'm sorry, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-16 05:01:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18087923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/na_shao/pseuds/little_fella
Summary: “You killed him!” Theseus shouts, his pale fingers curling around the edge of his wand as he peers around the room, Percival’s body lying in a pool of oxidized blood, almost black at the rim.





	And I'm running out of time (flesh and bones)

**Author's Note:**

> Reposting here all my tumblr fanfictions.

“You killed him!” Theseus shouts, his pale fingers curling around the edge of his wand as he peers around the room, Percival’s body lying in a pool of oxidized blood, almost black at the rim.

It blends together with the floor like a film of gasoline spreading all over the asphalt, thick and enveloping and forever snatching whatever was underneath it.  _Snatched;_  that’s the word. Percival was snatched from him, was vanished into nothingness before he could even get to him.

_You failed him._

Grindelwald only smiles coyly, bound to a chair in Percival’s living room. “ _I killed him?_  No, Theseus, dear, what are you saying?”

It twists a bittersweet knife in Theseus stomach; dread and tension, back and forth,  _back and forth,_ and a long exhaled breath.

“He’s not—?”

The question hangs in the air like the smell of smoke clinging to Theseus’ woolen scarf.

“Don’t be daft, of course he’s dead,” the dark wizard grumbles with an air of annoyance that says, _Merlin, you are so terribly slow._ “I did no such thing.  _You,_  on the other hand…  _you did. You killed him._ ”

Theseus can’t get the words out of his head as he turns pale, paler than the sky on a snow day; pain rips through his body faster than lightning, waves of violent agony licking at his lips.

_You did. You killed him._

He lets his fierce red hair fall in front of his eyes, mouth bone-dry. It cannot be.  _It cannot be._ He didn’t kill Percival, of course  _he did not._

A smirk plays across Grindelwald’s face again. “Oh. Oh,  _touché._ Oh, darling. You fall apart really well, did you know? I love that.”

“I didn’t kill him— I didn’t,” Theseus replies in what he hopes is the calmest voice that he can muster; but despair shows itself on the tip of his tongue and he slips, slips until the man in front of him is only laughing, the look on his face repulsively smug.

“But you did— people saw you come in here. I planted them around, those witnesses.”

“You son of a bitch,” Theseus snarls in growling anger, throwing him to the ground with a violent, sharp jerk of his arm. His jaw trembles when he understands what happened, when he realises how sick Grindelwald is— sick enough to pretend to be Theseus and to kill Percival as such,  _as him_. “ _You son of a bitch!_ ”

“They’re coming for you soon, Theseus. They’re coming for you very soon…”

He wants to laugh at this whole thing, at everything. Percival is very dead, still warm at his feet, but very dead and very beaten up, blue at the eyes and purple at the lips.

_Dead. Fucking dead. And he died thinking it was you all along._

Theseus takes a step forward, forcing Grindelwald to curl up into himself onto his chair, but he does not out of fear, no; out of malice, and mischief, and  _amusement._

“I’ll give you some bloody fun,” the British Auror murmurs under his breath in a dangerously quiet voice before shooting a  _Crucio_  at the other man who’s lying on the floor with his mouth stretched. With a burst of annoyance at how Grindelwald still manages to fucking smile at him, to fucking  _laugh_  maniacally, Theseus sneers, fire spreading through him when he shouts the curse again, his wand vibrating in his fingers as magic crackles down the length of his spine.

“Shut up,  _shut the fuck up!_ ” he ends up snapping, out of control, unable to contain himself, green eyes wide under the shock of his burnt copper sunset hair; copper, like the colour of faded but ever so present scars.

There’s a split second where the dark wizard is writhing in pain, though it doesn’t last— and Theseus is left with the bitter taste of an unresolved mission on his tongue as he ignores the beads of sweat dripping into his eyes. They seem to make him even more aware of the rain pounding relentlessly outside, drowning the asphalt in puddles of dirty water.

It’s the only thing that makes sense, in the end, these things running in drops, the sweat clinging to his skin that makes him shine with terror and his fingers twitch in horror.

“Theseus, dear, this is nothing but a mere scratch. You have to try harder, if only for your own sake, because this is humiliating for the Head Auror you pretend to be.”

Stepping even closer, the Brit jabs the tip of his wand into Grindelwald’s ribs. “I won’t hesitate to kill you.”

“ _I bet_  you will not hesitate,” the older man cackles, not even bothered by the Auror’s wand suddenly digging into the long line of his neck.

 _I really should have seen it coming,_ Theseus tells himself when the dust coils in front of him and gets drawn in and out of the room, out of the wooden parquetry and slips between the pages of old books Percival used to read to him in the evening as Grindelwald vanishes and Apparates somewhere else, somewhere Theseus can’t reach, will never reach.

The impact of it shudders through the whole circuit of his body.

Grindelwald’s gone and Theseus will be framed for a murder he didn’t commit.

Suddenly, his lips curl up into an echo of a smile. _It’s insane._

_It’s insane and yet it is what is going to happen. It’s the truth they will all believe._

It is somehow easy to pretend that his partner is still breathing, still very much alive. Theseus steps toward him, closer, so close that he wishes Percival can feel his breath against his face on the other side. He takes Percival’s palms in his, pressing his mouth to his blue lips in a last attempt to make this a nightmare from which he will eventually wake up.

Nothing happens.

His heart shatters; he blinks against the pain and looks into the eyes of the wizard he has loved with all his heart—  _loves_  with all his heart, and pulls him toward him to kiss him again with all the desperate love he can gather.

If only he had been  _quicker_ , had  _known_ , had just—

If only he hadn’t  _failed_  him.

The sole memory blooming through his synapses is of their first night together, as Theseus sneaked into Percival’s bunk bed to press his lips to his before the other man could even think of protesting, Theseus not letting him go until arms were wound around each other’s bodies, until Percival sank the rest of the way into him, marking him his,  _his forever_  if he wanted, hoping that forever could last and mean something,  _anything._

“They will all pay, one by one. He will pay. I can promise you that.”

If there’s one thing he can do, it’s this; promising a tangible purpose to be shattered to the ground to honour this man he failed— and he will construct his own memory through a rush of vibrant energy drawn from the darkest places of his mind, drawn from the brightest shade of blood he will spill so Percival’s heritage lives on.

He didn’t know that being kissed could feel like that, at the time.

He didn’t know that losing the one person you thought you would marry could feel like that, either— red and burning and agonising; an ache so empty, a body feeling like a corpse, a heart weighing a thousand pounds.

Theseus’ laugh is bitter like firewhisky when the Aurors take him away, eyes dead and heart sinking into his stomach, his gaze roaming the floor thoughtfully to watch Percival’s face one last time.

_Goodbye, my love._

**Author's Note:**

> Find me at @ angryzilla on tumblr and @ spreadtheashes on twitter. 
> 
> Comments are always very welcome <3


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